Chris Boden

Kieran Trippier makes his first return to Turf Moor on Saturday.

But the popular former Clarets right back is expected to be on the bench for Spurs - a position he has had to get used to in two seasons at White Hart Lane after a £3.5m move from Burnley.

Kieran Trippier makes his return to Turf Moor on Saturday

Players he left behind at Turf Moor, Tom Heaton and Michael Keane, have gone on to earn England recognition in that time, and boss Sean Dyche thinks he is of that standard as well.

Trippier has made only six Premier League starts since joining Spurs, with England right back Kyle Walker first choice.

He has experienced Europa and Champions League football, and Dyche said: "If Kieran was playing regularly (he might be in the England squad).

"I think Kyle Walker has been terrific and Tripps has pushed him to another level.

Kieran Trippier on his last Burnley appearance at Aston Villa

"I think Tripps is a top class player, but it’s weirdly held him back because he’s promoted someone else to shift forward.

"That's the nature of the game.

"Keano is deserving of his chance and delivered good enough performances to be considered moving forwards.

"Gareth (Southgate) has done well in the sense that he didn’t choose him in the Under 21 tournament (in 2015), but he’s trusted me and what he’s seen with his own eyes that he has moved on."

While Trippier's England ambitions have stalled, the progress of Heaton, Keane, and the likes of Ben Gibson and Jake Livermore have shown you don't have to be at one of the big six or seven clubs to get the call.

So can it be better for players to play regularly at Premier League level, rather than be rotated or struggle to get a regular start at one of the elite clubs? "It’s a debate. We’ve got a demand here, but there’s more demand at a club with massive resources, because if you're not doing it for any period of time beyond a game or two, it changes, whereas we can develop beyond a game or two, partly by necessity because we haven’t got a massive group and partly because we have to develop because our riches aren't good in the grand scheme of the Premier League.

"We have to keep working with these players.

"Two years Keano had a spell when he was heavily questioned in the Premier League, and I took him out for a spell, knowing he’d come back, then he had a fantastic season last year and has carried that on this year.

"That maybe wouldn’t have happened at another club due to the demand of another club."

It is refreshing to see players get a chance at England level without being at a Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea, and Dyche added: "Playing regularly at the top level, whether you’re at a club at the top, middle or bottom, it’s still playing regularly at the top level.

"It’s good to be playing regularly at the top level.

"The good side of not so many English players playing at the super elite clubs is that players at clubs that aren’t at that elite level are still getting recognised, when they might not have been recognised when I was a young lad, because the top boys were mostly at the top clubs."

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